The First Psalter Printed in English
GERVASE
E.
DuFFIELD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IF YOU ASKED a well informed Christian who gave the world the
first English printed Bible, he would probably reply Tyndale. He
would be right, for Tyndale translated the whole of the New Testament; he also translated and published the Pentateuch plus a few
other oddments likeJonah, and left a substantial part of the rest of the
Old Testament in manuscript translation. If you asked that Christian
who first translated the rest, he might mention Miles Coverdale: again
he would be right. Coverdale worked over Tyndale's Old Testament
labours, adding those of his own, and he is best remembered for the
majestic cadences of his Psalter which was made famous the world
over through the Book of Common Prayer. But very few people
would mention either Joye or Bucer in connection with early printed
English language Bibles.
GeorgeJoye is almost unknown today. His argument with Tyndale
about life after death and pirating Bibles is just about known, but his
personal contribution figures in few Reformation histories. Bucer
is much better known-generally for his eirenical spirit. He is
often thought to have occupied himself with continental Reformation
problems until near the end of his life when he was invited to England
by Cranmer. Though he spoke no English, he advised Cranmer on
theology and Prayer Book revision, before dying at Cambridge in
1551. In fact Bucer gave us the first English printed Psalter through
the translation of George Joye.
In 1529 Martin Bucer, who was then at work consolidating the
Reformation in Strasbourg, produced a massive and learned commentary on the Psahns. It was written in Latin, the international
scholarly language of the day. Details ofGeorgeJoye's life are mostly
obscure, but we know that this Cambridge graduate who was a native
of Bedfordshire had to flee for his faith and his life to the continent.
We know that he was married, and that he spent much time in
Antwerp, then at the height of its power commercially, and it may be
291
THE
FiRsT PSALTER PRINTED IN ENGLISH
292
surmised that he supported his family through writing (mainly translating) and proof reading for the industrious Antwerp printers,
especially Endhoven and de Keyser. Antwerp was an international
trading and financial centre at the time, and it is surprising how often
extant letters mention chance contacts in the Low Countries through
which Protestant ideas spread as far afield as Poland, Italy, Spain
and Britain. The English merchants in Antwerp befriended the
Protestant fugitives and in a measure protected them both from
Henry's and papal agents.
Joye, one of these refugees, and despite his later dispute largely a
friend of Tyndale, soon determined to translate part of Bucer into
English. He translated Bucer's Latin text, and after the manner of
the times allowed himself a certain liberty in changing what he
translated. Joye added to the actual Psalter text Bucer's Arguments,
these being a kind of interpretive summary which he prefixed to each
individual Psalm. By 1530 Joye's Psalter was rolling off the Antwerp
presses, though because of the danger involved in printing anything of
which the authorities disapproved, the imprint was fictitious 'Francis
Foxe, Argentine', this last word being the contemporary name for
Strasbourg.
Bucer's influence in England was felt long before Cranmer invited
him to British shores. The Bucer-Joye Psalter is little known because
it has not been reprinted since the sixteenth century, and because due
to the rigours of censorship and persecution, only two copies are known
to have survived, one in the British Museum, London and the other in
California. The Oxford copy listed by Darlow and Moule (normally
careful scholars) is a fiction, for it has never been known in the Bodleian
Library, Oxford as I have verified.
This 1530 Bucer-:Joye Psalter was used in the early Reformation
Primers, the forerunners of the Prayer Book, and also for the notes in
Matthew's Bible. A number of strange and yet well-known phrases,
usually held to be Coverdale's in origin, are found injoye's translation,
bugges for instance in Psalm 91 or shephoke in Psalm 23. The work
itself purports to be by Aretius Felinus, the pseudonym under which
Martin Bucer wrote. Joye is not mentioned, but, for reasons I have
set out in the Courtenay Facsimile edition introduction, he is the translator
almost certainly. Three editions were published before the liturgical
reforms of the I 540s and the later versions of the Bible replaced the
Bucer-Joye version. But it has its rightful place in Bible history as the
first Psalter ever printed in English. It contributed to our 'English
literary heritage with the occasional memorable phrase, and it showed
once again the strong continental influence on the English Reformation. How anyone with any first hand knowledge of sixteenth century
history can go on believing the myth that somehow the English
Reformation proceeded on theologically different lines is a mystery
to me. There is overwhelming and ever growing evidence against this
293
THE FIRST PSALTER PRINTED IN ENGLISH
notion. The historical setting was different, but early on the theology
on both sides of the Channel was almost identical. Bucer's influence
was felt right through the sixteenth century from the late 1 520s
onwards. ThroughJoye's translation he was read by ordinary people,
and even before that Bucer was read in Latin by the learned. The
copy of Bucer's Psalms Commentary which Archbishop Warham, no
friend of the Reformation, left to All Souls Library, Oxford is evidence
of that, quite apart from Cranmer's extensive library later on.
Until the Courtenay Facsimile was made available in a limited edition
of 250 copies, there were only two known copies extant. Now the first
Psalter ever to be printed in English is available once again for libraries,
collectors, scholars and bibliophiles.
Sixteenth Century Essays & Studies
Edited by Car! S. Meyer
V olutne 2 I I 8 pages demy octavo containing
Erasmus: Interpreter of Romans. J. B. Payne
The Battle Hymns of the Lord: Calvinist Psalmody
of the Sixteenth Century. W. Stanford Reid
The Bible and Biblical Authority in the Literary
Works of Pierre Viret. R. D. Limier
Liturgical Reform among the Irenicists. J. P. Dolan
Marpeck versus Butzer: A Sixteenth Century
Debate over the Uses and Limits of Political
Authority. D. ]. ,Zeigler
Cranmer, Tudor Diplomacy and Primitive Discipline. J. P. Forman
A new annual from The Foundation for
Reformation Research'
SUTTON COURTENAY PRESS
Appleford, Abingdon, Berkshire, U.K.
Sutton Courtenay 319